The Truth Report with Chauncey DeVega

Heather Cox Richardson is Professor of History at Boston College. She is the author of numerous books including her most recent, Democracy Awakening. Richardson’s Substack newsletter “Letters From an American” is essential reading and is subscribed to by 1,400,000 people. She explains how the study of American history and peoples’ movements to expand real democracy are critical for defeating Trumpism, American neofascism and global illiberalism today. Heather also reflects on how her background as a working-class person helped to prepare her for the intellectually, spiritually, emotionally, and physically demanding work of defending American democracy in her role and responsibility as someone who thinks and writes publicly for a living. WHERE CAN YOU FIND ME? On Twitter: https://twitter.com/chaunceydevega On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chauncey.devega My email: chaunceydevega@gmail.com HOW CAN YOU SUPPORT THE TRUTH REPORT? Via Paypal at ChaunceyDeVega.com Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TheTruthReportPodcast  https://www.patreon.com/thechaunceydevegashow 

On this episode of The Truth Report, Chauncey DeVega shares a version of his recent essay at Salon, “How Professional Wrestling Helps to Explain the Upcoming Debates Between President Biden and Aspiring Dictator Donald Trump”. WHERE CAN YOU FIND ME? On Twitter: https://twitter.com/chaunceydevega On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chauncey.devega My email: chaunceydevega@gmail.com HOW CAN YOU SUPPORT THE TRUTH REPORT? Via Paypal at ChaunceyDeVega.com Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TheTruthReportPodcast  https://www.patreon.com/thechaunceydevegashow

Last Thursday, Donald Trump was found “guilty” in his New York hush-money and election interference trial. He is now the first former or sitting president to be convicted of a felony. Given these historic events, I am sharing my conversation with Glenn Kirschner here on The Truth Report about Trump’s trial(s) and the extreme danger(s) he continues to pose to the country and its democracy. My conversation with Glenn Kirschner was recorded several weeks ago. **** Glenn Kirschner is an NBC News/MSNBC on-air legal analyst and teaches criminal justice at George Washington University. He has a YouTube channel and Podcast, “Justice Matters with Glenn Kirschner.” Kirschner is also a former federal prosecutor with 30 years of trial experience. He served in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia for 24 years, rising to the position of Chief of the Homicide Section. In that capacity, Kirschner supervised 30 homicide prosecutors and oversaw all homicide grand jury investigations and prosecutions in Washington, DC. He explains why and how Donald Trump (and his confederates) have been able to evade serious accountability for their public crime spree against American democracy and society, including the Jan. 6 coup attempt and lethal terrorist attack on the Capitol. Kirschner cautions that contrary to the mainstream media’s narrative that the “walls are closing in” on Donald Trump given his multiple criminal and civil trials where he may face hundreds of years in prison and hundreds of millions of dollars in fines and judgements, the reality of the situation is much more perilous and uncertain. He warns that Donald Trump and the Republican fascists and the larger “conservative” movement are trying to kill American democracy and will not stop until they achieve their goal of unlimited power and putting Dictator Trump in the White House. WHERE CAN YOU FIND ME? On Twitter: https://twitter.com/chaunceydevega On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chauncey.devega My email: chaunceydevega@gmail.com HOW CAN YOU SUPPORT THE TRUTH REPORT? Via Paypal at ChaunceyDeVega.com Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TheTruthReportPodcast  https://www.patreon.com/thechaunceydevegashow

On this episode of The Truth Report, Chauncey DeVega shares a version of his recent essay at Salon, “Trump trial delays bring focus to crucial Supreme Court case”. WHERE CAN YOU FIND ME? On Twitter: https://twitter.com/chaunceydevega On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chauncey.devega My email: chaunceydevega@gmail.com HOW CAN YOU SUPPORT THE TRUTH REPORT? Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/TheTruthReportPodcast Via Paypal at ChaunceyDeVega.com

On this episode of The Truth Report, Chauncey DeVega shares a version of his recent essay at Salon, “When Trump gets dark, Biden goes light”. WHERE CAN YOU FIND ME? On Twitter: https://twitter.com/chaunceydevega On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chauncey.devega My email: chaunceydevega@gmail.com HOW CAN YOU SUPPORT THE TRUTH REPORT? Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/TheTruthReportPodcast Via Paypal at ChaunceyDeVega.com

On this episode of The Truth Report, Chauncey DeVega shares a version of his recent essay at Salon, “Donald Trump is testing out a new campaign strategy: horror politics”. WHERE CAN YOU FIND ME? On Twitter: https://twitter.com/chaunceydevega On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chauncey.devega My email: chaunceydevega@gmail.com HOW CAN YOU SUPPORT THE TRUTH REPORT? Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/TheTruthReportPodcast Via Paypal at ChaunceyDeVega.com

Dr. Bandy Lee is a forensic psychiatrist and a leading expert on violence who taught at Yale School of Medicine and Yale Law School for 17 years before transferring her activities to Columbia and Harvard. Dr. Lee is also the editor of the New York Times bestseller, The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 37 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President. She is currently president of the World Mental Health Coalition, the largest professional organization to address the problem of dangerous leadership and its contribution to a “mental health pandemic.” Dr. Lee continues to warn that Trump and his MAGA movement and American neofascism constitute a public health emergency, which as seen on Jan. 6 and with Trump’s escalating threats of massive violence and destruction is only continuing to get worse. She also warns that Trump’s megalomania and the enduring power of the MAGA cult reflects how American society is sick with malignant normality and how that collective state of evil and pathological behavior can only lead to doom and destruction.  Dr. Lee reflects on where the country would now be if the news media, political class, and other elites had responded properly to the warnings issued by mental health professionals more than seven years ago that Donald Trump represented an extreme threat to American society and that his obvious unwellness would spread and infect the nation if he were to become president – and if he wins the 2024 Election Dictator for Life will become a terminal disease for American democracy and society.  WHERE CAN YOU FIND ME? On Twitter: https://twitter.com/chaunceydevega On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chauncey.devega My email: chaunceydevega@gmail.com HOW CAN YOU SUPPORT THE TRUTH REPORT? Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/TheTruthReportPodcast Via Paypal at ChaunceyDeVega.com or directly here:

Sgt. Aquilino Gonell is a Dominican immigrant, former U.S. Army Soldier, and Iraq War veteran. He’s been a Capitol Hill Police Officer for the past 17 years and was one of four police officers who testified before the House Select Committee investigating the January 6th Insurrection. He’s been recently featured in The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post, NPR, CBS Mornings, NBC News, Fox-TV, MSNBC, The Daily Beast, The Hill, and Rolling Stone. He is the recipient of the Carnegie Immigrant Award. Sgt. Gonell’s new book (with co-author Susan Shapiro) is American Shield: The Immigrant Sergeant Who Defended Democracy. Sgt. Gonell shares what it was like on the ground as he and his fellow officers tried to defend the Capitol on Jan. 6 against Trump’s MAGA terrorist mob and attack force who were trying to end American democracy as part of the coup attempt. Sgt. Gonell also reflects on his personal trauma, healing, questions of character, and how he became the type of man he is as shown by his service to the country when it would have been much easier to not have shown up to work on that historic Jan. 6. WHERE CAN YOU FIND ME? On Twitter: https://twitter.com/chaunceydevega On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chauncey.devega My email: chaunceydevega@gmail.com HOW CAN YOU SUPPORT THE TRUTH REPORT? Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/TheTruthReportPodcast Via Paypal at ChaunceyDeVega.com or directly here:

Dr. Justin Frank is a former clinical professor of psychiatry at the George Washington University Medical Center and the author of Trump on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President. He warns that Donald Trump appears to be a megalomaniac, who as demonstrated by his recent comments at a rally in Iowa, truly does believe that he is some type of Chosen One who has been selected by “god” and “Jesus” to be America’s first dictator. Dr. Frank also explains how Trump’s obviously diseased mind and severe mental unwellness is rooted in a need to protect himself from reality – and how the pro-democracy forces can perhaps pierce Trump’s defense shield as they try to stop his fascist movement and takeover of the country.  WHERE CAN YOU FIND ME? On Twitter: https://twitter.com/chaunceydevega On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chauncey.devega My email: chaunceydevega@gmail.com HOW CAN YOU SUPPORT THE TRUTH REPORT? Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/TheTruthReportPodcast Via Paypal at ChaunceyDeVega.com or directly here:

On this episode of The Truth Report, Chauncey DeVega shares his recent essay at Salon, “The secret to Trump's revenge plot: He's making his plans for vengeance public”. WHERE CAN YOU FIND ME? On Twitter: https://twitter.com/chaunceydevega On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chauncey.devega My email: chaunceydevega@gmail.com HOW CAN YOU SUPPORT THE TRUTH REPORT? Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/TheTruthReportPodcast Via Paypal at ChaunceyDeVega.com

On this episode of The Truth Report, Chauncey DeVega shares his recent essay at Salon, “Donald Trump Dreams of an American Fourth Reich — and He's Not Kidding”. WHERE CAN YOU FIND ME? On Twitter: https://twitter.com/chaunceydevega On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chauncey.devega My email: chaunceydevega@gmail.com HOW CAN YOU SUPPORT THE TRUTH REPORT? Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/TheTruthReportPodcast Via Paypal at ChaunceyDeVega.com

Dr. Justin Frank is a former clinical professor of psychiatry at the George Washington University Medical Center and the author of Trump on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President. Dr. Frank shares his expert insights about Donald Trump’s mind and how the ex-president’s mental pathologies and other unwell behavior are shaping his response to being criminally indicted for his many alleged crimes including Jan. 6 and his attempted coup attempt to end American democracy.  In the end, Dr. Frank warns Trump will become increasingly detached from reality as he exercises even more violent control and power over his MAGA cult followers who view the ex-president as a type of father figure and personal god. WHERE CAN YOU FIND ME? On Twitter: https://twitter.com/chaunceydevega On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chauncey.devega My email: chaunceydevega@gmail.com HOW CAN YOU SUPPORT THE TRUTH REPORT? Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/TheTruthReportPodcast Via Paypal at ChaunceyDeVega.com

Rich Logis is a former high ranking Trump MAGA World operative and propagandist who describes himself as "a remorseful ex-Trump, DeSantis and GOP voter." Logis is the founder of Perfect Our Union, an organization dedicated to healing political traumatization; building diverse, pro-democracy alliances; and perfecting our Union. He reflects on how he was radicalized by the Trump MAGA fascist movement, how it functions as an alternate reality that provides emotional, intellectual, spiritual, social, familial, and other types of meaning and belonging for its members, and how he escaped it. Rich Logis also shares how being a member of the MAGA movement and worshipping the Great Leader Donald Trump made him feel like he was a soldier in a revolutionary struggle to defeat the Democrats, “the liberals” and other enemies of “the movement”. WHERE CAN YOU FIND ME? On Twitter: https://twitter.com/chaunceydevega On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chauncey.devega My email: chaunceydevega@gmail.com HOW CAN YOU SUPPORT THE TRUTH REPORT? Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/TheTruthReportPodcast Via Paypal at ChaunceyDeVega.com

Mark Jacob is a media critic and a former Metro Editor at the Chicago Tribune and Sunday Editor at the Chicago Sun-Times. He reflects on his decades-long career in the news media and what he learned about that institution’s failings and how it helped to birth the Age of Trump and American neofascism. Mark Jacob warns that obsolete habits and cultural norms such as “fairness”, “objectivity”, “bothsidesism”, “access journalism”, and “horse race coverage” by the mainstream corporate news media are acts of cowardice and surrender to the Republican fascists and other malign actors. WHERE CAN YOU FIND ME? On Twitter: https://twitter.com/chaunceydevega On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chauncey.devega My email: chaunceydevega@gmail.com HOW CAN YOU SUPPORT THE TRUTH REPORT? Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/TheTruthReportPodcast Via Paypal at ChaunceyDeVega.com

Jason Van Tatenhove is the former national media director of the right-wing militia group the Oath Keepers. Mr. Tatenhove testified about the escalating dangers of right-wing radicalization and neofascism before the House Jan. 6 Committee. His new book is The Perils of Extremism: How I Left the Oath Keepers and Why We Should be Concerned about a Future Civil War. In this wide-ranging conversation Jason reflects on his life decisions and mistakes and how he found himself radicalized by the Oath Keepers. He also explains why the Republican-fascists and the larger right-wing media propaganda machine is so effective, and how economic precarity and loneliness are powerful forces that suck too many white people into right-wing paramilitary and other fascist organizations.  WHERE CAN YOU FIND ME? On Twitter: https://twitter.com/chaunceydevega On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chauncey.devega My email: chaunceydevega@gmail.com HOW CAN YOU SUPPORT THE TRUTH REPORT? Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/TheTruthReportPodcast Via Paypal at ChaunceyDeVega.com

Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, bestselling author, and social critic. His two most recent books are Our Class: Trauma and Transformation in an American Prison and The Greatest Evil is War. Chris Hedges reflects on the lessons he learned during his long career as a journalist about the “business” that is the news business, how the “truth” is manufactured, why it pays very well to be a careerist who does not care about confronting Power, and the ways that the limits of the approved public discourse are shaped to serve the interests of the rich and the powerful. He also offers counsel and advice about enduring difficult times and navigating the personal cost to one’s physical, mental, and emotional health that comes from being a serious journalist who is committed to telling uncomfortable and unpopular truths in dangerous times. Chris Hedges shares his worries about how Russia’s war against Ukraine, and America and NATO’s response to it, could potentially spiral out of control into a wider war and even worse disaster.

***This is a special combined episode of The Truth Report and The Chauncey DeVega Show*** On this special Thanksgiving Day installment of the podcast, Chauncey DeVega reflects on the deeper meaning of gratitude and thankfulness during these challenging and troubling times. Chauncey also shares his recent essay on using gratitude and thankfulness as a type of energy and fuel in what will be a long struggle against neofascism and to create a true we the people democracy here in the United States. WHERE CAN YOU FIND ME? On Twitter: https://twitter.com/chaunceydevega On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chauncey.devega My email: chaunceydevega@gmail.com HOW CAN YOU SUPPORT THE CHAUNCEY DEVEGA SHOW? Via Paypal at ChaunceyDeVega.com Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thechaunceydevegashow

*** This is a special combined episode of The Truth Report and The Chauncey DeVega Show*** Jeff Sharlet is a journalist and bestselling author of The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power and C Street: The Fundamentalist Threat to American Democracy. His forthcoming book is The Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War. Sharlet reflects on the meaning of the 2022 midterms and how the American people voted to slow down the Republican fascist assault on their democracy and by doing so won an important reprieve in what will be a very long struggle. He also counsels that hope is very important and a source of strength and fuel in the long war for American democracy. Sharlet also highlights how writing and community and other forms of creating social capital will be a bulwark and source of resistance and fuel against the Republican fascists, the larger white right, and other forms of civic evil. Chauncey shares his insights on the 2022 midterms, what the polling data and other evidence really shows about how the American people voted to support “democracy” (or not), and counsels that many countervailing forces were at work on election day. Ultimately, Chauncey warns that the final story about the 2022 midterms is far from being written and that the conventional wisdom will likely be proven wrong again. WHERE CAN YOU FIND ME? On Twitter: https://twitter.com/chaunceydevega On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chauncey.devega My email: chaunceydevega@gmail.com HOW CAN YOU SUPPORT THE CHAUNCEY DEVEGA SHOW? Via Paypal at ChaunceyDeVega.com Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thechaunceydevegashow

*** This is a special combined episode of The Truth Report and The Chauncey DeVega Show*** David Neiwert is an investigative journalist. He is the author of numerous books including Alt-America: The Rise of the Radical Right in the Age of Trump, The Eliminationists: How Hate Talk Radicalized the American Right, and Red Pill, Blue Pill: How to Counteract the Conspiracy Theories That Are Killing Us. His forthcoming book is The Age of Insurrection: The Radical Right's Assault on American Democracy. Neiwert warns that there is a high potential for right-wing violence in response to the midterms and beyond. He also explains how the Republican fascists and larger white right have been planning their attempt to end American democracy in plain sight for decades – and that the Age of Trump and this escalating democracy crisis should not be a surprise. And he reflects on what it feels like to have been sounding the alarm about American neofascism and the violent extremism of the American right-wing for decades and to not have been listened to. David Rothkopf is the CEO of The Rothkopf group. He was also a senior official in the Clinton Administration and CEO and editor-in-chief of Foreign Policy Magazine. He is the author of many books and articles including the new book American Resistance: The Inside Story of How the Deep State Saved the Nation. Rothkopf is a frequent contributor to such leading news media outlets as The Washington Post, The New York Times, Financial Times, Time, CNN, and Newsweek. Rothkopf is also the host of the podcast Deep State Radio. David Rothkopf explains why being calm and focused is necessary to defeat the Republican fascists and the larger white right’s attempt to end American democracy. In the end, panic is a recipe for disaster – and is exactly what the Republican fascists and their forces want to create among the American people. He warns that voter turnout and mobilization are one of the few ways to stop the Republican fascists and their campaign against American democracy during the 2022 midterms and beyond. And Rothkopf reflects on what he learned from his time in the Clinton administration and why there can be no compromise with today’s Republican fascists and why doing so is to surrender and betray American democracy and freedom. WHERE CAN YOU FIND ME? On Twitter: https://twitter.com/chaunceydevega On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chauncey.devega My email: chaunceydevega@gmail.com HOW CAN YOU SUPPORT THE CHAUNCEY DEVEGA SHOW? Via Paypal at ChaunceyDeVega.com Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thechaunceydevegashow

Shawn Rosenberg is a professor of political science and psychology at UC Irvine and one of the world’s foremost experts in political psychology. He warns that the average American and other people who live in countries governed by Western-style democracies may be fundamentally unable to follow through on the basic responsibilities of being responsible citizens. Such a deficiency helps to explain why right-wing fake populism and other forms of authoritarianism and fascism are compelling to so many people – and that saving American and Western-style democracy from the rising fascist tide will require fundamental reforms of the educational system and democratic institutions. In this wide-ranging conversation Shawn Rosenberg also explains why Trump’s followers and those of other right-wing populists and demagogues are so attracted to violence, conspiracism, nationalism, racism, bigotry, the cult of ignorance, dark charisma and the other anti-social values and beliefs that animate such movements. WHERE CAN YOU FIND ME? On Twitter: https://twitter.com/chaunceydevega On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chauncey.devega My email: chaunceydevega@gmail.com HOW CAN YOU SUPPORT THE TRUTH REPORT? Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/TheTruthReportPodcast Via Paypal at ChaunceyDeVega.com